Imperial Armour 9 Badab War - Tyrant's Legion List review

I received my (signed) copy of IA9 the other day.  Nice book, as one would expect from Forge World.  I haven't read through the entire thing yet, but wanted to give a quick review of the army list included with the book, The Tyrant's Legion. 

The basic thrust of the army is a force that lets you mix up Space Marines and Guardsmen.  There's a few different things, but for the most part it's a very straightforward army, with little in the way of fancy rules and units.  It could be another option for some Renegade forces, less crazy Lost and the Damned type armies, Heresy-era mixed Imperial forces or other counts-as possibilities.



The Space Marines are basically normal Space Marines, so have ATSKNF and Combat Tactics.  There is another rule for the army, "The Tyrant's Due", that lets Marines taking cover behind Auxilia squads to get a 3+ cover save instead of 4+, but if they do the Auxilia take some damage.

HQ

Lugft Huron, The Tyrant of Badab: The big cheese himself is an HQ option for the army.  He has a number of special rules that make him a tough hombre.  He's more expensive than the CSM version, which is good because he would tear his later self apart.  When taken with the Tyrant's Legion list he also lets you take an Elite unit (ie Sterngaurd, Terminators, etc) of your choice from Codex: Space Marines, as well as Honor Guard.  He's a tough, hard to kill character that also gives benefits to the army as a whole, so if you can make him work with the army he could be a good buy.

Legion Centurion: Space Marine leader type, 2W, 9Ld, typical options.  Have to have one if army is 1500pts or more.  "Angel of Death" rule that if he's with an Auxilia squad that breaks they get an extra chance to rally at the expense of more casualties as he attempts to restore morale via bolter and chainsword.  Maybe if you did an extra d3 wounds to the enemy instead they wouldn't have broken in the first place dude!

Legion Auxilia Command Detachment: Basically an IG command squad with fewer options (fewer weapons, no medic, standard, advisors), no orders.  Option for Chimera.  "Field Commander" - 18" Ld (8) bubble. 

Elite

Corpse Taker: One of the more unusual units in the list.  An Apothecary with servitors that goes around collecting geneseed from fallen friend and foe alike.  Minor CC unit.  "Dark Harvest" - enemy space marine infantry units killed close to him count for extra Kill Points.  Can take a Rhino or Razorback.

Renegade Marauder Squad: Pirates and miscellaneous ne'er do wells from the Maelstrom co-opted into Huron's forces.  Can take a Chimera or an Arvus Lighter.  Some special abilities that make them sort of halfway between IG Veterans and Penal Legion.  Can take up to two Brutes, close to Ogryn stat-wise, with Rending.  May not attempt to regroup - if they break, they're done.

Legion Retaliator Squad: Space Marine CC squad, Rhino/Razorback options.

Troops

Legion Space Marine Cohort: Basic marines, up to 20 in the squad, option for Rhino if small enough.  One special or heavy for every five marines (so with 20 could have 4).

Legion Auxilia: 1+ required.  The basic grunts.  Twenty guys base, with option for up to twenty more.  Except for leader, conscript stats, Ork saves.  Option for flamer/gl/heavy stubber for every ten guys.  While squad leader is alive can regroup even under half strength.

Auxilia Armsmen Cadre: 10-20 strong, basically normal IG stats.  One special, and for every 10 one heavy (including HF option).  Come with lasgun and laspistol standard, can swap lasgun for shotguns or ccw for free, can upgrade to carapace armor.  Option for Chimera if small enough.  Tool these guys up a bit and they'd be a good place to stick the Legion Centurion.

Fast Attack

Legion Iron Hunter Squadron: Marine bikers, up to ten strong, no attack bike option, come with Counter Attack.  If you want some SM bikers riding ahead of your IG tanks, could be fun, but overall pretty vanilla.  If you can arrange to Turbo-boost behind some Auxilia, could have fun claiming 2+ cover saves though.

Auxilia Hellhound Flame Tank Squadron: 1-3 Hellhounds.  HH only, no Banewolves or Devil Dogs.

Legion Sentry Gun Battery: Immobile artillery platforms, like Tarantulas.  Options for TL HB, multimelta, TL las, TL assault cannon.

Maelstrom Fleet Lighters: 1-3 Arvus Lighters (AV10 flyer/fast skimmer transport) bought as a squadron but operate independently.  Options for limited weapons.

Heavy Support

Auxilia Battle Tank Squadron: 1-3 Russ tanks, either standard, Annihilator, or Exterminator.

Auxilia Siege Defence Squadron: 1-3 Thunderer, Medusa, or Basilisk.

Artillery Barrage: Off-table artillery, several options.

Auxilia Fire Support Cohort: 3-6 weapon teams plus leader.  Mortar, TL heavy stubber, heavy bolter, autocannon, missile launcher options.

Maelstrom Fleet Naval Squadron: 1-3 Thunderbolt, Lighting, Vulture.

Astral Claws Chapter Support: For every Legion Space Marine Cohort taken can use one of your HS slots to choose HS from Codex: Space Marines.

Auxilia Heavy Ordnance Battery: 1-3 stationary Earthshaker or Medusa platforms.



Overall as said it's a pretty straightforward army.  It looks like it could be a fun way to combine Space Marines and IG equivalents, and could lead to some neat Lost and the Damned armies.  You can mech up, but the large squad sizes seem to be encouraging a more footslogging horde with support.  Nothing is really out there - if you leave the flyers at home and don't fool with the more scenario-appropriate stationary platforms I think it would be fine to play against.  Given that you can get a lot of marines and also pull units over from Codex: Space Marines, the feel to me is much more a Marine list that can get some IG-type support rather than an IG list with marine support, though you could build it that way if desired.